On Saturday, May 4th we welcomed newly admitted BEAM Discovery students to the program with our annual Family Welcome Lunch. Students and their families got the chance to meet the BEAM full time and summer staff, other admitted students and learn more about what to expect in from the summer. Additionally, we invited BEAM alumni and parents to come share their experience during the summer. Check out some pictures of the event below:

If you did not get to attend the lunch or are interested in the event, check out the video below:

Each year, BEAM supporters, students, and staff get together for a night of slightly mathy-trivia, upscale pizza, beer, wine, and fun!

Our volunteer trivia host, Andy, designed a night of quirky and challenging questions! Here's a sample question from each round: (answers at the bottom of the post!)

Round 1 was a potpourri of challenging questions. Here's a mathy one: "What is the smallest possible value for |a - b|, if a + b = 2017, a only contains even digits, and b only contains odd digits?"

Round 2 featured a matching game. Given a single sentence about a game in one of 20 languages, can you figure out which language you're reading and what sport is being described? Here's an example: "In what game does one of the rules translate to 'Carduri trainer reprezintă Articole, Suporterii și Stadioane de un Antrenor poate utiliza în luptă'?"

Round 3 was all NYC, with questions about the boroughs, high schools, bridges, and more about our city. For example, "Which high school, which is one of the westernmost schools in Manhattan, is named after a former director-general of New Netherland?"

Teams, comprised of a mix of students, staff, and supporters worked together and got to know each other over the course of 36 challenging questions!

Between Rounds 2 and 3, we took a break to ask all the students present about their experiences with BEAM. The 8th-12th graders answered serious questions, and joked around, about math, high school, college, and more.

Couldn't make it this year? Sign up for BEAM's mailing list in the footer of this page to here when ticket sales start for next year. Our staff and students can't wait to meet you!

Every winter, BEAM brings together program supporters and students for an evening of dinner and board games. An elegant board games party? Yes, you heard that right!

This winter, we saw folks playing Swish, chess, Ricochet Robots, Blokus, Apples to Apples, and Set.

Over games and dinner, the adults got to hear just what it was like for students to participate in BEAM. After dinner, a panel of students answered questions from the audience about their experiences at BEAM, in high school, at other programs, and their goals for the future.